[vol.5] Life at my work_ MY SISTER WHO IS NOT RESPECTED AS A MOTHER, A HOUSEWIFE OR AS LABOR

MY SISTER WHO IS NOT RESPECTED AS A MOTHER, A HOUSEWIFE OR AS LABOR

Pak, Nam Hui( Staff of Seoul Women Workers Association)

---

My sister who is mother of two children (six and seven years old) has worked at home for eight years. She started work when she was 13 years old and she has continued to work until now. She makes women's underwear. What made her work at home was her hope that she could prepare for her wedding.

In addition to working up until a few days before her baby was born, my sister works in a small sweat shop, with four sewing machines but it is so small only one person can stand and work. Due to the large number of orders, she works until midnight or 2 am. My mother is not the only assistant of my sister's home-based work and housework but her husband and I also help her in her work.

My sister does not take care of her children very well even though she is at home.

Because she has production deadlines, she does not have time to be a mother for her children. Her children play on the street without their mother's care. Her overtime work makes her husband upset and her health is getting worse. Therefore, my sister can not be respected as a mother, a worker and a housewife. My poor sister.

Fortunately her mother helps her in all the housework. However other home-based workers who do not have any helper suffer greatly because of the extra burden of housework.

In Korea, there is no nationwide survey of home-based work. Home-based work is regarded as a part-time job but this is a fallacy. Money earned from home-based work is absolutely essential for family survival and is not just pocket money. Home-based workers differ from other factory workers in the respect that the latter have continual work which is not affected by supply dates, production quantities and price.

The company that gives orders to the home-based workers decides these factors. Hence the home-based workers are at the mercy of the company. In this sense, the employment security law for protecting home-based workers which the International Conference for the Solidarity of Home-based workers in Asia held in Amedabed, India in March 20th to 22nd advocated,

and the periodical meeting of the ILO held in June has much significance. We are trying our utmost to gain general recognition that home-based workers are also workers and that the law needs to be reformed to protect them. In addition to this, we are investigating and studying the conditions under which home-based workers must operate in order to find ways of forcing an employment protection law to be legislated and to successfully organize these workers.